[flapperleenie]

Under German law you can have part-time self-employed work alongside your normal job.

[k__]

And in fact, many people have.

They need to give you the money somehow, if they don't want to employ you, that is (as far as I know) the only way.

[tobilg]

You're right! But then I'd really wish they'd refine the phrasing of the rule section.

In fact, if you have a full-time employer, this employer will in most work contracts reserve the "right" to your full work capacity, and will insist on a sign-off for other jobs besides the "full-time" one.

[k__]

Sure, but the project you want to get fundet doesn't need to be full-time.

I know a bunch of people in full-time employment, who are self-employed on the side for few hours a week.

Also, some employers would let you reduce to 80% or 50% for a few months, if they're nice :)

[tobilg]

That's true. But I think for people who don't have a self-employment status yet, this is a big obstacle to even apply.

Maybe it would make sense to open up the application for everybody, but to connect the grants to the self-employment status (i.e. the applicant get some timeframe to register the self-employment and if necessary talk to the employer).

I just think the rules lead to a strong restriction of the applicant pool and also the possible grant-worthy projects. But this might be intended...

[k__]

As far as I can tell, the application doesn't ask for informations on your self-employment status.

And how long you are self-employed doesn't matter for the payment.

[tobilg]

Yes, but my point is that nobody will try to get self-employement status first if he/she doesn't have it, before even knowing whether the project is accepted.

This would have implications on the relationship to the full-time employer, and also from a tax perspective (which is quite a hassle here in Germany, IMHO...).